How Did They End Up Writing Rome Guidebooks?

That's us in June on Monte Velino, photo taken by one of the Italians in the
Italian hiking group.  This large mountain of several peaks is less than two
hours from Rome - to the bottom of the mountain, not the top.

For those of you who are still wondering how a U.S. History Professor, whose most recent book was about Patty Hearst, and a tax lawyer ended up writing guidebooks to Rome, you can check out an interview Lillie Marshall did with us recently.





Lillie, whose blogs, Web sites, and Facebook sites champion international teaching and travelling, asks some good questions, we found.  Like who paid for all that travel!

Check out the interview here: http://www.teachingtraveling.com/2013/10/28/rome-guidebooks/

That's us, finally in Rome, looking a bit the worse for wear,
 just after those 250 miles. That's our workhorse scooter,
 a Hexagon (made by Piaggio - the same folks who make
the Vespa - but it's considerably  larger).  It finally broke down
on us  a couple years ago and had to be replaced.

And here's one of the Qs and As:

TT: Tell us one moment from your travels that was particularly funny.

D & B: After the Fulbright, Bill wanted to go to different places and Dianne wanted to keep going back to Rome (as Dianne recalls). We compromised: We would go to Rome, but he would get a scooter and we would live in different neighborhoods (always outside the historic center) each time. We bought a scooter from one of Bill’s historian colleagues in the U.S. The scooter was in Bologna – 250 miles from Rome. We picked it up in Bologna; Bill drove it around the block; I got on back, and we took off over one of the curviest and scariest roads in Italy – La Futa – between Bologna and Florence. It took us four days, my shoulders were sore from being tense; Bill was exhausted from all the driving, but we made it to Rome. And we’ve been traveling via scooter ever since.

Dianne